


Historical Accuracy

by Gwynne



Category: Vorkosigan Saga - Lois McMaster Bujold
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-07-23
Updated: 2011-07-23
Packaged: 2017-10-21 16:35:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,119
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/227296
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gwynne/pseuds/Gwynne
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>For biichan's prompt: Years after everything gets declassified, someone decides to make a children's show about Mile's adventures.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Historical Accuracy

**Author's Note:**

  * In response to a prompt by [biichan](https://archiveofourown.org/users/biichan/pseuds/biichan) in the [2011_bujold_fest](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/2011_bujold_fest) collection. 



Message Received 11:23 5th-3-45  
Liria Toscane  
to Davion Toscane  
Hi Daddy, university is great. Love it here, I’m working really hard, honest. Many thanks for the extra credit bars, it’s amazing how much everything costs. I’m sending you my latest assignment, to show how well I’m doing – I nearly passed! Oh, and I’m sending a copy of Irilka Galeni’s research dissertation, as well – you remember her? Tiana’s big sister - we all used to share a bubble car to school. She’s two years ahead of me, and she’s been working on this amazing history stuff. I know you always like that kind of thing, you were saying how it always vids well. Anyway, she’s got all this info on some old historical guy who did all kinds of incredible stuff. Thought you might like it.  
Hugs and thanks again for the credit bars,  
Liria Toscane

Message Received 9:45 5th-3-45  
CBC Broadcasting Company  
Davion Toscane, CEO  
to Edon Vennier, Head of Programming  
Have a look at the attached document. It’s a research paper by some university grunt. Might be useful for next season’s lineup?

Message Received 12:52 6th-3-45  
CBC Broadcasting Company  
Edon Vennier, Head of Programming  
To Vialla Kosygin, Head of Production  
Re: ‘Admiral Naismith and his impact on the socio-political development of the Nexus during the consolidation of the Empire’  
This has possibilities. How about ‘Carry on Mercenary’?

Message Received 14:30 8th-3-45  
CBC Broadcasting Company  
Vialla Kosygin, Head of Production  
To Edon Vennier, Head of Programming  
Re: ‘Admiral Naismith and his impact on the socio-political development of the Nexus during the consolidation of the Empire’  
Not sure – ‘Carry on Ceta’ and ‘Carry on Komarr’ did well – you can always have fun with invasions. ‘Carry on Emperor’ didn’t rate as high, but that Yuri guy wasn’t all that interesting. But they’re working on ‘Carry on Impsec’ now, so we don’t really need another one yet. Should be a hoot, too – the fast-penta scene is hilarious, they tell me. And the general in charge of Impsec has a com chip in his head, so he replays everything he hears. They’ve got him doing all the voices as he plays back – it’s a scream! Could we do this mercenary thing as a historical? ‘Bloody Centuries’ is doing well for the BBC.

 

Message Received 10:05 9th-3-45  
CBC Broadcasting Company  
Edon Vennier, Head of Programming  
To Vialla Tuomonen, Head of Production  
Re: ‘Admiral Naismith and his impact on the socio-political development of the Nexus during the consolidation of the Empire’  
What the Barrayaran Broadcasting Corporation chooses to show is their business, it doesn’t affect our decisions. But if we were looking for a drama, this would translate well. With all that action it would skew towards the younger viewers.

Message Received 10:38 10th-3-45  
CBC Broadcasting Company  
Vialla Kosygin, Head of Production  
To Danita Tuomonen, Head of Programming  
Re: ‘Admiral Naismith and his impact on the socio-political development of the Nexus during the consolidation of the Empire’  
Have a look at this – would it fill that gap in Youth Programming next season? We could brand it as educational, perhaps.

Message Received 10:00 12th-3-45  
CBC Broadcasting Company  
Danita Tuomonen, Head of Programming  
To Marilla Barrara, Childrens Programming  
Re: ‘Admiral Naismith and his impact on the socio-political development of the Nexus during the consolidation of the Empire’  
You wanted something for the educational quota. This is a historical, and some of the people were important apparently, would this pick up enough points? Of course, it’d have to be done as accurately as possible. It’s vital to maintain respect for the history involved.

Message Received 17:25 13th-3-45  
CBC Broadcasting Company  
Marilla Barrara, Childrens Programming  
To Petros Roick, Production & Planning  
Re: ‘Admiral Naismith and his impact on the socio-political development of the Nexus during the consolidation of the Empire’  
Can you work this into something for that kids spot we need to fill next season? It’s going as educational, so keep to the facts.

Message Received 10:49 15th-3-45  
CBC Broadcasting Company  
Petros Roick, Production & Planning  
To Marilla Barrara, Childrens Programming  
Re: ‘Admiral Naismith and his impact on the socio-political development of the Nexus during the consolidation of the Empire’  
Looks great! We can do a lot with this. And I agree, it’s so important to keep it real. Most of this will just flow right onto the vid with only a few small changes, to make it more accessible for the audience. Working on the script now.

Message Received 9:10 16th-3-45  
CBC Broadcasting Company  
Marilla Barrara, Childrens Programming  
To Petros Roick, Production & Planning  
Re: ‘Admiral Naismith and his impact on the socio-political development of the Nexus during the consolidation of the Empire’  
Great, run it over to me as soon as you have a draft ready. Remember, historical accuracy is vital.

Message Received 15:33 19th-3-45  
CBC Broadcasting Company  
Petros Roick, Production & Planning  
To Marilla Barrara, Childrens Programming  
Re: ‘Admiral Naismith – Imperial Mercenary’  
The script is going fine, just one small point… the relationships are all pretty complicated. And nobody really understands all that Vor stuff any more. Can we streamline it a bit? The hero is supposed to be the emperor’s foster brother – we’ll just say brother. The emperor’s younger brother – that’ll track better.

Message Received 11:36 20th-3-45  
CBC Broadcasting Company  
Marilla Barrara, Childrens Programming  
To Petros Roick, Production & Planning  
Re: ‘Admiral Naismith – Imperial Mercenary’  
Fine, so long as we keep the main information accurate.

 

Message Received 14:32 4th-4-45  
CBC Broadcasting Company  
Petros Roick, Production & Planning  
To Marilla Barrara, Childrens Programming  
Re: ‘Admiral Naismith – Imperial Mercenary’  
It’s going great, but we’ve hit a bit of a problem – this is one of the few times we need to take the sex OUT of a story. Unless you want to rejig this as an adult vid – and believe me, it’d run well that way. I’m amazed anyone had time to run the fleet. He had a thing with his second in command – that’ll track well, gives some romance to it, but he also had a thing with a few others. One was some kind of gengineered soldier. Part animal, or something. We can’t have that kind of thing in a kid flick. We’ve kept the animal, but made it male, and really hairy. Big and fluffy – it’ll sell well in the merchandising.

Message Received 17:30 5th-4-45  
CBC Broadcasting Company  
Marilla Barrara, Childrens Programming  
To Petros Roick, Production & Planning  
Re: ‘Admiral Naismith – Imperial Mercenary’  
So long as we only make those changes that are unavoidable. I agree that we need to think of our target audience, this is a general release vid.

Message Received 11:56 12th-4-45  
CBC Broadcasting Company  
Petros Roick, Production & Planning  
To Marilla Barrara, Childrens Programming  
Re: ‘Imperial Mercenary’  
We’re devoted to the text, and keeping its integrity. But there’s just one thing that’s a problem – there seems to be a mistake about the hero’s height. It says 4’9” in the old scale. We’ve worked that out, it’s about 144 cm. Obviously that’s an error. Maybe they meant 5’9”, that’d make him 175 cm – makes more sense. A bit short compared to most, but not too obviously handicapped. Besides we don’t have anyone under 150cm who can play the part unless we cast a child, and that’s not going to work. So we’ll fix the height in the script.

Message Received 20:01 16th-4-45  
CBC Broadcasting Company  
Petros Roick, Production & Planning  
To Marilla Barrara, Childrens Programming  
Re: ‘Imperial Mercenary’  
We’re all excited about this, it’s so great working on something important. There’s some marvellous stuff where he meets his own clone – it’s funny and emotional at the same time. Obviously we need to adjust the politics, nobody understands much about Komarran rebellions any more, so we’ve made it a Cetagandan plot. Since their empire fell apart they’ve been useful as villains for this kind of thing, and it means we’re not offending any trade partners or advertisers. And if his brother stays with him and joins the mercenaries, that means we can have one character for comic relief while the other identity stays as the hero – it’s just a minor twitch to the plot.  
Oh, and we need to fix the names, we need something more heroic. ‘Miles and Mark’ sounds like a comedy duo. So we might have to make a small change there. But it won’t affect the integrity of it all.

Message Received 16:45 21st-4-45  
CBC Broadcasting Company  
Petros Roick, Production & Planning  
To Marilla Barrara, Childrens Programming  
Re: ‘Imperial Mercenary’  
One of the characters is supposed to be a herm. While we acknowledge the many, varied and totally positive ways of expressing sexuality, and the importance of historical accuracy, we’ve changed the character to an Escobaran. It’s a minor change that doesn’t affect the overall integrity of the work.

Message Received 6:51 28th-4-45  
CBC Broadcasting Company  
Petros Roick, Production & Planning  
To Marilla Barrara, Childrens Programming  
Re: ‘Naismith’s Raiders’  
That Ky Tung character is a great comic relief, always quoting bits of ancient wisdom at the right moments. Can we make him a medic? We need the hero to be the one running the Tac-com, obviously, since he’s the star. But a crusty old medic who’s always muttering wise sayings, that’ll play well. And it keeps the tone of the work.

Message Received 13:43 4th-5-45  
CBC Broadcasting Company  
Petros Roick, Production & Planning  
To Marilla Barrara, Childrens Programming  
Re: ‘Naismith’s Raiders’  
That business at the Hegen Hub, with the Cetagandans, we’ve tweaked the details just a little, so that our hero defeats the Cetas. It’s a bit drawn –out for them to jump through then just hold the Cetas back until the combined fleet arrives, so in our vid he’ll lead them through the wormhole – on the first ship through, of course – and defeat the Cetas on the spot. It doesn’t change much, it just compresses the action into a more watchable time frame.

Message Received 15:22 9th-5-45  
CBC Broadcasting Company  
Petros Roick, Production & Planning  
To Marilla Barrara, Childrens Programming  
Re: ‘Vorbarra’s Mercenaries’  
The name of the fleet – Dendarii – what does that mean? Is it some old Barrayaran language? We have to call it something the audience will recognise. How about the Vorbarra Mercenaries? We’ll work on that.

Message Received 9:10 11th-5-45  
CBC Broadcasting Company  
Janos Pymble, Marketing  
To Marilla Barrara, Childrens Programming  
Re: ‘Vorbarra’s Mercenaries’  
Have we considered making this a musical?

Message Received 13:56 13th-5-45  
CBC Broadcasting Company  
Petros Roick, Production & Planning  
To Marilla Barrara, Childrens Programming  
Re: ‘Vorbarra’s Mercenaries’  
In his real identity he’s in the Barrayaran military, yes? But he’s just a lieutenant. He should be at least a captain, or how about a major? Or colonel, or something? What was the order of those old rankings, anyway? We need to make him something more important than a lieutenant.

Message Received 13:21 19th-5-45  
CBC Broadcasting Company  
Janos Pymble, Marketing  
To Marilla Barrara, Childrens Programming  
Re: ‘Vorbarra’s Mercenaries’  
He dies? Really? Not suitable for a kidvid. Maybe a shoulder wound?

Message Received 9:29 25th-5-45  
CBC Broadcasting Company  
Irina Soosin, Wardrobe department  
To Marilla Barrara, Childrens Programming  
Re: ‘Vorbarra for Hire’  
No problems at the moment, just a quick word about costuming. Grey doesn’t vid well, and it’s a bit dull. We’re looking at a nice mid-blue with white or silver trim. But that doesn’t change the reality of it all, it’s just a necessity for the sake of the images.

Message Received 17:30 3rd-6-45  
CBC Broadcasting Company  
Marilla Barrara, Childrens Programming  
To Petros Roick, Production & Planning  
Re: ‘Vorbarra for Hire’  
I don’t like the Impsec connection, it’s a bit dark and political. Let’s have him working directly for the emperor.

Message Received 8:33 8th-6-45  
CBC Broadcasting Company  
Petros Roick, Production & Planning  
To Marilla Barrara, Childrens Programming  
Re: ‘Vorbarra for Hire’  
Isn’t the emperor his brother? Maybe he gets into trouble at home and is sent away. What about if he kills someone in a duel and his brother sends him off-planet to avoid any trouble? That makes more sense than what we have here. Gives motivation to the character – he’s trying to atone for his crimes.

Message Received 16:43 10th-6-45  
CBC Broadcasting Company  
Janos Pymble, Marketing  
To Petros Roick, Production & Planning  
Re: ‘Renegade Admiral’  
Can we have him ride a horse when he’s home? Animals rate well.

Message Received 13:21 19th-6-45  
CBC Broadcasting Company  
Petros Roick, Production & Planning  
To Janos Pymble, Marketing  
Re: ‘Renegade Admiral’  
Sure, that’s how they got around in those days.

Message Received 9:29 25th-6-45  
CBC Broadcasting Company  
Irina Soosin, Wardrobe department  
To Marilla Barrara, Childrens Programming  
Re: ‘Renegade Admiral’  
Another costuming problem – it says he was naked in the prison camp. Obviously that’s not possible in a kid-vid, so we’ll keep his pants on. He can go bare-chested, though, that’ll keep the mums happy.

Message Received 8:37 6th-7-45  
CBC Broadcasting Company  
Janos Pymble, Marketing  
To Marilla Barrara, Childrens Programming  
Re: ‘Renegade Admiral’  
I like the double identity, we get to see him in those cute uniforms they used to wear when he’s home. Nice merchandising there. Were they still living in domes then?

Message Received 9:54 12th-7-45  
CBC Broadcasting Company  
Marilla Barrara, Childrens Programming  
To Janos Pymble, Marketing  
Re: ‘Mighty Mercenaries’  
Home for him was Barrayar, not Komarr.

Message Received 8:45 15th-7-45  
CBC Broadcasting Company  
Janos Pymble, Marketing  
To Marilla Barrara, Childrens Programming  
‘Mighty Mercenaries’  
Really? This was THAT far back? When the capital was still on Barrayar? What was it called – SultanVorbarra, wasn’t it? How will we vid that, do we need to go on location?

Message Received 20:15 22nd-7-45  
CBC Broadcasting Company  
Marilla Barrara, Childrens Programming  
To Janos Pymble, Marketing  
‘Mighty Mercenaries’  
We’ll get some stock outdoor shots, meld with live action, do the rest in the comcon blend. For interiors we’ll just build a few miniature sets and comcon them around the actors. Most of it’s on a ship in space, anyway, so that’s easy.

Message Received 11:34 7th-8-45  
CBC Broadcasting Company  
Marilla Barrara, Childrens Programming  
To Petros Roick, Production & Planning  
Re: ‘Imperial Mercenaries’  
I’ve just seen the latest script updates.  
Did Emperor Serg have a brother?  
Did we even have an Emperor Serg?

Message Received 12:45 14th-8-45  
CBC Broadcasting Company  
Petros Roick, Production & Planning  
To Marilla Barrara, Childrens Programming  
Re: ‘Imperial Mercenaries’  
We must have, we named a planet after him. Anyway, for the big climax we’re having our hero save the Empire from the Cetagandan invasion. He’ll bring his mercs through the wormhole and drive the Cetas away. This redeems him, his brother forgives him, and after he marries that Ellaquin woman the emperor makes them king and queen of Sergyar. And a royal wedding is always a good show. They can ride horses for that, too.

Message Received 11:31 18th-8-45  
CBC Broadcasting Company  
Marilla Barrara, Childrens Programming  
To Petros Roick, Production & Planning  
Re: ‘Imperial Mercenaries’  
Stopping the Ceta invasion? And ruling Sergyar? He did that?

Message Received 18:54 24th-8-45  
CBC Broadcasting Company  
Petros Roick, Production & Planning  
To Marilla Barrara, Childrens Programming  
Re: ‘Imperial Mercenaries’  
Some Vorkosigan did, it’s in the history vids. I’m sure I remember the name. We’ve made him the emperor’s younger brother, but we’re still keeping things as accurate as possible.

Message Received 16:28 29th-8-45  
CBC Broadcasting Company  
Marilla Barrara, Childrens Programming  
To Petros Roick, Production & Planning  
Re: ‘Imperial Mercenaries’  
Horses or elephants? I’m sure elephants came into it somewhere.  
And what happens to the fleet?

Message Received 17:01 1st-9-45  
CBC Broadcasting Company  
Petros Roick, Production & Planning  
To Marilla Barrara, Childrens Programming  
Re: ‘Imperial Mercenaries’  
His clone brother can lead them. Keeps it in the family.

Message Received 14:32 5th-9-45  
CBC Broadcasting Company  
Marilla Barrara, Childrens Programming  
To Petros Roick, Production & Planning  
Re: ‘Imperial Mercenaries’  
Are we keeping the historical accuracy of all this?

Message Received 9:43 16th-9-45  
CBC Broadcasting Company  
Petros Roick, Production & Planning  
To Marilla Barrara, Childrens Programming  
Re: ‘Imperial Mercenaries’  
Sure we are, after all the original research comes from the university history department.

Message Received 10:10 21st-9-45  
CBC Broadcasting Company  
Viala Brettin, Casting Department  
To Marilla Barrara, Childrens Programming  
Re: ‘The Emperor’s Own Mercenaries’  
On the height thing, we’ve cast Simos Evvatta as the lead. He’s 195 cm tall, so the height thing has to be altered. But we have the perfect solution – he’s blonde. So the angst will be about being blonde on a world where everyone else has dark hair. Petros has added a great scene where the hero talks about the constant humiliation as he grew up, how he’d try to dye his hair, even shave his head, to avoid the shame. It’ll work just fine, it keeps the integrity of the situation, with just that small unimportant change.

Message Received 21:05 27th-9-45  
CBC Broadcasting Company  
Petros Roick, Production & Planning  
To Marilla Barrara, Childrens Programming  
Re: ‘The Emperor’s Own Mercenaries’  
We go in front of the cameras tomorrow. I’m feeling really good about this, it’s wonderful to be part of a true quality production.  
Oh, there’s been one small update, we’ve changed some of the names, based on some surveys from marketing. It’ll fly better this way with the audience.

 

19th-10-45  
WhatzOnVids – Weekend update  
Yesterday saw the release of Communal Broadcasting Company’s latest kidvid, ‘Mercenary Hero’. In the past we’ve seen some truly quality productions from this company. Last season we saw ‘The Lost Prince’, that touching, doomed romance between Count Vidal Vordarian and Princess Kareen. And a perennial favourite is their version of the Escobaran incident, ‘Escobar Attacks!’ Well, they’ve done it again – a superbly researched glimpse of our history. The attention to detail is truly inspiring, this is a production that really respects their material, and their viewers. We see Emperor Serg’s younger brother, Ezar, a spoilt ne’er-do-well who struggles with the secret agony of a terrible handicap, until he accidently runs over an old woman while piloting his lightflyer drunk. Then he’s bundled off-planet to run a squad of mercenaries, on the way rescuing the beautiful Ellaquin. There’s some sparkling romantic tension between the two as ‘Admiral Aral’ leads his motley crew on some daring rescues. Along the way he meets his Cetagandan-created clone brother, forming a lifelong friendship. Eventually he returns to SultanVorbarr as a hero, after defeating the Cetagandans in the Hegen Hub, and just in time to drive them out of Barrayar. The wedding scene with Ellaquin is truly touching, especially when she kneels to swear allegiance to her new husband. And then Emperor Serg makes them King and Queen of Sergyar, a truly inspiring ending. It’s not often that we see our history presented so well, and with such accuracy. This is definitely one for the awards night!


End file.
